


December 19

by superangsty



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, M/M, idk as always I suck at tags. season 3 spoilers (ish), therefore technically an au of season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28503717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superangsty/pseuds/superangsty
Summary: "I’ve not spoken to this girl since the eighties, and you want me to say to her that hey, I know we used to date but actually I’m gay now and in a relationship with your other ex-boyfriend, wanna play some pac-man?”Season 3 finale, but Daniel and Johnny are together because it's my fic and I said so.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 12
Kudos: 214





	December 19

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! This is my first fic for cobra kai, hope you like it! I know I have like... a million other WIPs that i should've done instead of starting this but i mean like... at least I finished SOMETHING

The Christmas party is already in full swing when Daniel arrives, the music playing just slightly too loud as people dance and chat with fake smiles plastered on their faces.

He’s arrived with Amanda – they’d had a long day at the dealership and it was easiest for them to carpool – but she ditches him as soon as they walk in, going to search for Anoush in the crowd. For want of anything better to do, he goes over to the bar to order drinks for the three of them, making small talk with the bartender as he does (better than small talk with the country club people, at least). He’s about to try and awkwardly pick up all three drinks and walk over to the table when –

“Daniel with an L.”

Her voice is different, more mature, but when he turns to look at her Ali Mills seems exactly the same. It’s been what – thirty years? Daniel’s been married, had kids, divorced – the same as Ali, he thinks absently, remembering seeing her Facebook page a few months back – but something about her still makes his chest clench.

They talk for a few moments, or Ali talks and Daniel kind of just fumbles for words, and it’s nice for a few moments. Then, of course, she has to call Johnny Lawrence over.

The thing is – and Daniel feels like a complete ass for thinking this – the thing is, the country club is the one place he can go to get away from Johnny, because every time he suggests Johnny come along he’s met with complaints of rich people and posers and god knows what else. And again, here’s Daniel, biggest asshole in the world, but he’d been looking forward to just one night off, where he could go to a party and talk to his Country Club Friends and act like everything was still normal.

Johnny looks good. Daniel’s pretty sure the last time he saw him in a suit was the last time they were in this country club together, seventeen years old and itching to fight. He didn’t even know Johnny _owned_ a suit, but there you go. Hidden depths, he supposes. Ali’s introducing them as though they might have forgotten each other, like they haven’t seen each other since high school. But of course, she’s been off on the other side of the country and there’s no reason for her to think they _have_ seen each other since high school.

Johnny puts his arm around her shoulder and smiles. Looks at Daniel. Drops his arm. Starts insulting Daniel’s suit, instead.

“So, I guess this is _not_ the first time you’ve seen each other since high school.”

“We’ve had a few run ins,” Johnny replies, looking down at his feet.

Daniel raises an eyebrow. “One or two.” He pauses, meets Johnny’s eyes. “We, uh, we ran into each other again for the first time a couple of years ago.”

“Yeah,” Johnny scoffs, “’run into’ is right, considering what your daughter did to my car.”

“Barely a dent, and I fixed it for him,” Daniel says, looking at Ali, who is glancing between them with an amused smirk on her face. “As a thank you, he drew a dick on one of my billboards.”

“And when I tried to _apologise_ ,” Johnny cuts in, “his cousin _set my car on fire_.”

This is why Daniel prefers the country club when Johnny’s _not_ there.

Ali, bless her heart, takes it all in her stride, laughing it off before dropping yet _another_ bombshell on Daniel.

Lunch.

_Lunch?_

Lunch. Johnny. With Ali. Spending all day together, apparently, and if Johnny would just meet his eyes maybe Daniel wouldn’t be feeling so ticked off. And Johnny doesn’t even have a _phone_ , actually, so how the hell had he managed to orchestrate an entire day of fun with someone who is _basically_ a _stranger_ with just Facebook on that ancient laptop of his and –

“What, did you get lost on the way to the table – _Johnny?_ ”

 _Amanda._ Thank god. She’s dragged Anoush over too, who, seeing Johnny, starts to look distinctly uncomfortable.

“Oh, hey Amanda,” Johnny greets, smiling. “My fault, sorry, Daniel was just catching up with me and Ali.”

Amanda smiles back – Johnny tends to have that effect on people – before shaking herself and turning to Daniel, frowning. “What happened to ‘Johnny wouldn’t be caught dead at the country club’?” she asks, putting on a gruff voice in a poor imitation of Daniel.

“No idea,” Daniel replies, smiling tightly. “But, uh, Ali, sorry, this is my ex-wife Amanda and her husband Anoush. Guys, this is Ali Mills.”

“We went out in high school,” Ali says brightly, completely oblivious to the building tension between the three of them (Anoush, god bless the man, was focusing instead on picking up the drinks).

Amanda’s face spreads into a grin and she takes a sip of her martini, looking between Daniel and Johnny. “I cannot _wait_ to talk to you.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ali replies, raising a glass in a mock toast.

“So, have the man-boys filled you in on the whole ‘mortal enemy karate dojos turned –” Amanda starts, before Daniel steps in, literally, he takes a step forward and cuts her off.

“Hah, yeah, rival karate dojos, it’s a whole thing.” He pats Amanda on the elbow, trying to shoot her a pointed look. “Why don’t you guys go ahead to the table.” He next directs a pointed look at Johnny. “Uh, Johnny, can we step out for a second? I need to talk to you about, uh. About the. Uh.”

“Tournament?” Johnny supplies, eyebrows raised.

“Sure. The tournament. Do you mind?”

*

“What the hell, Johnny?” Daniel bursts out, the second the two of them are through the doors to the garden. “You came to a party at the club, at _my_ club, with _Ali Mills_?”

“What!” Johnny replies, pacing through the garden after Daniel. “We were hanging out today, she asked if I wanted to come, I didn’t think it would be an issue! What’s your problem?!”

“My problem?” Daniel stops walking, suddenly, and spins around. “My problem, my _problem_ is you didn’t think to tell me you were spending the day with Ali Mills, with your _ex-girlfriend_?”

“ _That’s_ what this is about, Daniel? Jesus, you came to this party with your ex- _wife_!”

“Yeah but I –” He cuts himself off, because Johnny has – not a point, maybe half a point there.

But no, actually, because Johnny – Johnny was making Facebook accounts, and going for lunch, and putting his arm around her without even so much as a ‘hey, Daniel, did you hear Ali Mills is in town?’, and Daniel’s _been_ the one who sneaks around before and this looks an awful lot like that.

“Amanda’s family,” he says instead, running a hand over his face. “And we go to this thing together every year. And actually, Johnny, I invited you and you said _no_ , so I don’t think you can turn this on me.”

“I just –” Johnny takes a step closer, reaching a hand out to Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel shrugs it away. “I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

“And why did she think we didn’t know each other, did you not know how to bring _that_ up either? I – she thought you were on a date. She thought you were on a date, and you didn’t think to tell her that you weren’t?”

“Daniel –”

“Y’know, just a quick ‘oh, Ali, I think you’re really cool and I’m having a fun time but just so you know, I’m spoken for’. Would that have been so hard?”

“You really think I can just – I’ve not spoken to this girl since the _eighties_ , and you want me to say to her that hey, I know we used to date but actually I’m gay now and in a relationship with your _other_ ex-boyfriend, wanna play some pac-man?”

“I – yeah, maybe!”

“I don’t –” Johnny starts, looking down at his shoes. “I don’t have all that many friends, Daniel. I didn’t want her to hate me.”

“John…” Daniel says, softly, and steps forward, puts a reassuring hand on Johnny’s elbow. “She wouldn’t.”

“Right.”

“Look, I’m an ass,” Daniel continues, which earns a small huff of laughter from Johnny. “I won’t say anything if you don’t want me to, let’s just go back inside. Okay?”

Johnny nods, and Daniel reaches up to press a kiss to his temple. He squeezes his hand, briefly, then drops it and heads back in to the party.

*

When they get back to the table, Ali’s talking while Amanda is practically doubled over with laughter. They both cheer when Daniel and Johnny arrive, and Amanda grabs Daniel’s arm, eyes wide. “Did you really go to a school dance dressed as a shower? What did that even _look_ like?”

“God,” Ali says, wiping a tear from her eye. “It was hilarious. And then _Johnny_ comes running out, dressed like a toddler in skeleton pyjamas –”

“Hey ,that costume was _cool_ ,” Johnny interrupts, grinning. “All the chicks wanted to get with me.”

Ali pats his forearm, still chuckling. “Not after Daniel had hosed you down they didn’t.”

“Hosed –” Amanda starts, shaking her head incredulously. “So they were always like this, then? This petty?”

“It got kinda – gradually worse, until the tournament,” Ali says, “but they kinda left each other alone after that, and I’d thought that was it.”

“Wait,” Amanda says, looking between Daniel and Johnny. “So their rivalry wasn’t why you guys broke up?”

Daniel groans. His breakup with Ali, even though it was over thirty years ago, is not something he has any desire to relive. It was, and he doesn’t think he’s exaggerating when he says this, possibly the most humiliating thing to ever happen to him. And not something he ever really got over. Not that you’d know it, what with such a well-adjusted adult he is and all. Still, though, he forces himself to laugh along as she recounts the tale.

She says something about him jumping to conclusions, which gets him a smirk from Johnny, and a nudge from Amanda, too, and really she is having _way_ too much fun with this, and then the conversation moves to what an asshole teenager _Johnny_ was, but he’s so busy being Mr. Perfect that he manages to deflect the conversation away from him and suddenly they’re talking about kids.

“Let’s just hope our kids are more evolved than we were,” Ali laughs, and oh no she’s turning back to Daniel, “You’ve got two of them, right? Amanda was telling me about them.”

“Uh, yeah,” he answers, taking another sip of his wine. “Yeah, Amanda and I have two, Sam and Anthony, they’re great. Plus I’ve generally got Robby, too, so that’s –” he stops at the sound of Johnny’s glass thudding on the table. “Well, he’s not staying with us right now. It’s a little. Complicated. Ha.”

Ali glances back at Johnny. “Wasn’t your kid called Robby too? Weird coincidence, huh,” she chuckles. Amanda takes a _long_ swig of wine.

“Yeah,” Johnny mumbles. “Weird coincidence.”

*

Almost everyone else is gone by the time their little group gets up to leave the party, and after giving Ali a hug and both Daniel and Johnny a kiss on the cheek, Amanda heads out with Anoush and then it’s just the three of them.

Daniel should feel guilty, maybe, about how much of the night he and Johnny spent bickering, but it’s pretty par for the course and Amanda seemed to think it was more funny than annoying. Who knows _what_ Ali thought of it, but for someone who doesn’t really know either of them anymore she’s making a lot of sense, about how similar the two of them are.

Johnny shoves his hands in his pockets and smiles at Daniel, soft and private like they’re the only two people in the room. He looks back at Ali, then, and sets his shoulders.

“Ali, I should, um,” he starts, then shakes his head as if ridding himself of the thought. “I need to tell you –”

She laughs, pats him on the shoulder. “That you had fun tonight, but you’re seeing someone? Amanda mentioned that, earlier.” Johnny’s entire posture relaxes, and he looks back at Daniel again. “So what’s she like?”

Fuck.

“Fuck,” Johnny mutters, glancing down at his shoes and back up to Daniel. “It’s just. Ah, well,”

Daniel nods, silently, and Johnny looks down again. “Tall. Well, not that tall, actually, but… um. Good parent. The _best_ parent, really, much better than me, even when I don’t agree with –” Finally, he smiles again, and shakes his head. “Hot-headed, always pickin’ fights with me, but that’s how I like it.”

He meets Daniel’s eyes, and Daniel smirks. “Good in bed?”

Johnny grins, immediately trying to fight it back to a scowl. “No comment,” he replies, and raises an eyebrow. “Completely full of himself, though.”

Ali’s eyebrows go so high up they’re practically off her forehead. “Him?” she asks, looking back and forth between the two men. They both ignore her.

“Beautiful eyes, lithe body…”

Johnny snorts. “Lithe?”

“From all that karate,” Daniel explains, taking a few steps closer to Johnny until he can reach out and rest a hand on his hip.

“Right, all that karate,” Johnny says, slinging an arm round Daniel’s neck in return.

They stand there for a moment, gazing into each other’s eyes like a pair of horny teenagers and okay, so maybe Daniel’s had a bit too much to drink but Johnny’s the designated driver and has been nursing the same beer all night so he has _no_ excuse, really, and –

Ali clears her throat and they both turn their heads to look at her, startled. She smiles, and Daniel squeezes Johnny’s hip, half as a gesture of reassurance and half as a way of saying _I told you it’d be fine_.

“I –” she starts, then shakes her head. “I should get going, I’ll leave you boys to it.”

She walks up to Johnny and puts a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve got a good one there, Johnny. Don’t mess it up like I did.”

Johnny smiles, extracts himself from Daniel to give her a hug. When they’re done, Ali pulls Daniel in for one too. “You too, Larusso. And hey, have a good Christmas, both of you.”

They wave her off as she climbs into her car, and once she’s driven off Daniel snakes an arm round Johnny’s waist. “Lawrence,” he mutters in Johnny’s ear, “are you planning on taking me home anytime soon? I have a surprise waiting for you.”

“Oh yeah?” Johnny says, already waving for the valet to hand him his keys. “I’m gonna hold you to that, Larusso.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, please leave comments and kudos if you liked it, it really means a lot! If you want to come talk to me on tumblr, I'm @superangsty


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